ROLES OF THE ALLIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 October 1939, Page 7

ROLES OF THE ALLIES

REPLY TO PROPAGANDA MANY DETERMINING FACTORS [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.) (Received October 16, 11.15 a.m.) RUGBY, October 15. Much is being made in German agency reports of passages appearing here and there in French newspapers, which give the impression of voicing disappointment or dissatisfaction with the character or the scale of British military assistance. The French Press, like the British, but unlike the German, is free, and British and French newspapers, expressing varied and independent views, contain the opinion and comment both of the well-informed, and the considered and the less wellconsidered. Extracts from French newspapers, chosen by Nazi propagandists, could well be matched in substance, and surpassed in vigour, by the comment in certain English newspapers, but it would not serve the purpose of the Germans to reproduce it.

Nor, incidentally, in the case of either the French or the British Press, does such comment reflect the responsible or generally-prevalent opinion. It is understood by the public, both here and in France, as it has long been well understood between the two Governments, that the roles of the two countries in the war, determined as they must be by historical, geographical, and economic factors, cannot be identical.

The form and extent of British military intervention on the Continent has been clearly expounded in the Commons speeches of Mr. Hore Belisha on the Army Estimates, and in other pronouncements, which have been subject at the time of approving notice in both countries. In Britain, the Military Service Act made all fit males between 18 and 41 years of age liable to bo called up, and although at present only 20-21 age groups are being registered for immediate training, to supplement the numbers already under arms, approximating 1,000,000 men, volunteers up to the military age limit, are being enrolled simultaneously. Mr. Hore Belisha revealed last week that, since the outbreak of the war, 50,000 volunteers have been accepted.

ECONOMY OF MAN-POWER. The British and French authorities are assured of the endorsement of bestinformed opinion in both countries if, in a war not of their seeking, they practise what “Scrutator,” in the “Sunday Times,” to-day calls “wise economy of man-power,” and this not only in the field and in such operations as those of the French in the Saar, to which this writer was referring, but on the economic and industrial front as well. In the latter sense, wise economy means well-thought out, planned, and controlled disposition of the available resources of man-power. As Mr. Hore Belisha declared last Wednesday, referring to haphazard recruiting and drafting of skilled men out of industry into the army, in the last war, “Experience has taught us to avoid many errors of the last occasion.” To the mentality which takes little account of deeper politico-strategic considerations, and is aptly expressed in the catch-phrase, “This is a funny war,” the transport of 158,000 men to France, with the vast equipment of a modern army, 'and the installation of a base and lines of communication, may not be an achievement of sufficientlyspectacular character to give satisfaction, but a truer estimate of their significance is the statement of a French military expert, that it ranges with the greatest military feats, and is the “first victory for the Allies in the war.” TACTICS IN WEST. SOLID RESULTS ACHIEVED. (Received October 16, 11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, October 15. The military correspondent of the Swiss ■'newspaper “National Zeitung” says that the most-amazing feature of the war in the West is that the Germans have done nothing to prevent the arrival of the Allied armies in their positions, the organisation _ of _ communication, and the mobilisation of war industries. Germany’s opponents, this writer points out, completed these movements with the precision and calm of manoeuvres, thus, it is now too late to hinder them.

In the same paper a- picture is presented of the Siegfried Line as intact and unscathed by the French bombardment.

It is not doubted here that Germany would have preferred the French to launch frontal attacks, producing large casualty lists, but the British are at one with the French in realising that military operations are not the mostimportant part of a war effort in its early stages. By conducting a methodical war, the French have achieved, at very small cost in casualties, results the great value of which cannot be gauged merely in terms of depth of penetration. Saarbrucken is an important railway junction, and the fact that it is now surrounded on three sides, and that all roads and railways are under fire of the powerful French artillery, solidly established on the surrounding heights, is of as great value, strategically as the capture of the town. The significance of the French advances, of course, goes far beyond the immediate local results. It is appreciated in Britain that the presence of French troops on German soil has deeply affected the morale of the Rhineland population. Over 2.000,000 souls have been evacuated from this region—and this manifestation of the power of the enemy in their own territory is an experience that Germans have not endured during the progress of a war for over a century.

The economic consequences of the French advance are also seen to he of the first importance. The Saar industries have been brought to a standstill, depriving Germany of as much coal and iron as she has obtained from Polish Silesia. With these solid achievements to the credit of their arms, as well as the growing mastery of the sea and air, the Allies are not likely to fall a prey to discord, the possibility of which Nazi propagandists, by rather clumsy methods, suggest.